Leaders of the House of Representatives called out Vice President Sara Duterte on Friday for allegedly breaching protocols following her surprise visit to her long-time aide and current chief of staff, lawyer Zuleika Lopez, who is currently detained at the chamber after being cited in contempt.
House Sergeant-at-Arms Napoleon Taas confirmed that Duterte arrived at the House around 8 PM on Thursday. Given the Vice President’s busy schedule, the House permitted her to stay beyond the visiting hour deadline of 5 PM.
Duterte and Lopez were allowed to meet until 10 PM. However, Taas said they expected Duterte to leave the Batasan Complex after the meeting, but the VP went to the office of her brother, Davao Rep. Paolo Duterte, to “change” and stayed there until midnight.
“I personally appealed to the protocol and the security of the Vice President at Room 304 if they could possibly already leave the premises as there’s always a practice during long weekends that we turn off power in all our buildings,” Taas said in a briefing on Friday.
Despite the directive, Taas said Duterte and her entourage “stayed locked” in the room, causing the House to implement a lockdown and staffers to work overtime. The VP and her team only came out at 11 AM on Friday to visit Lopez again.
House leaders — Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio Gonzales, Deputy Speaker David Suarez, and Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe — criticized Duterte’s actions as disrespectful to the House and its employees, who were merely following rules to ensure security and order.
“[The House rules] should not be violated no matter who the person is. When they are not followed, it is as if we have broken the respect for the institution that serves the people,” the joint statement reads.
They added, “This is not a place to abuse or make personal space, no matter who you are. If there is no respect for simple rules, how can we trust that they will be able to respect the greater responsibilities that the people have entrusted to them?”
The House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability detained Lopez on Wednesday for committing “undue interference” by asking the Commission on Audit (COA) to withhold compliance with a subpoena issued by the House Committee on Appropriations. The subpoena sought to review the utilization of P500 million in confidential and intelligence funds that Duterte’s office received in 2022 and 2023.
Lopez admitted to writing a letter to the COA pending their response to the audit observation memorandum but claimed it was never her intention to undermine Congress’ power of the purse or its oversight function. She said Duterte was aware of the letter.
As a result of the contempt order, Lopez will remain confined at the House premises until the committee holds its next hearing on Monday, 25 November.
Panel chairperson Joel Chua revealed that Duterte requested to join Lopez in her detention, but the committee rejected the request as it violated House rules, which allow only immediate family members to accompany a detained guest.
Chua added that permitting the VP to stay at the House would jeopardize her safety and require additional security personnel.
“She’s high profile [and] it will require so much security… I don't know if we have enough security here,” Chua said.
He also emphasized the need for respect and cooperation. “The people such as the sergeant-at-arms and personnel here at the House are only doing their jobs according to the guidelines,” Chua noted.
Chua added that the House made some concessions, including allowing Lopez to stay in Rep. Duterte’s office instead of the detention facility, but refused to allow special treatment that would set a “bad precedent.”
"We don't want to give favors and we want everyone to be detailed here equally,” Chua stressed.
Duterte previously described the investigation as "persecution" and "a coordinated political attack" and declined to appear in subsequent hearings, despite attending the first one in September.
Lawmakers argued that if the VP truly wanted to protect her staff, she should appear before the committee to address questions regarding the multi-million secret funds of her office and the Department of Education (DepEd), which she led for nearly two years.
“It is surprising and disappointing that the Vice President had time to visit and spend the night in Congress but he did not have time to appear before the committee to explain how millions of confidential funds were spent. The people are the tax payers who are the source of these funds," House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro said.
The House probe centers on alleged irregularities in the use of P612.5 million in confidential funds allocated to the OVP (P500 million) and DepEd (P112.5 million) in 2022 and 2023 during Duterte’s tenure as secretary.
The COA flagged a significant portion of these funds, disallowing P73.287 million of the P125 million that the OVP spent in just 11 days during the last quarter of 2022.
State auditor Gloria Camora previously testified that Duterte’s office submitted 787 acknowledgment receipts (ARs) with no names but signatures, 302 ARs with unreadable names, and five ARs bearing the same name.
Lawmakers have questioned the authenticity of the ARs, suspecting they were fabricated or hastily prepared to justify the use of the multi-million peso secret funds.